A man, who had struck a deal to purchase a piece of land and tried to pay in cash, was allegedly caught handing over fake Indian currency notes to the seller at the Alipore land registration office this week.

Police said the accused, identified as Arun Sardar, 42, is suspected to have taken coloured printouts of currency notes and purchased dummy notes which children use for playing.

The alleged incident happened at the office of the district sub-registrar — III in Alipore on May 20.

The police said Arun had struck a land deal with Naba Kumar Sardar — both residents of Kultali in South 24-Parganas.

“A portion of the payment was already made. The final payment of around ₹6 lakh was outstanding. According to their deal, Arun was to hand over the remaining amount in cash at the land registry office in Alipore. The duo met and Arun handed over a bag full of purported currency notes to Naba Kumar,” said an officer of Alipore police station.

Minutes before the plot was to be registered, Naba Kumar started shouting “nakal taka, nakal taka (fake notes, fake notes)” catching the attention of the people around him.

Both were taken to the police station, along with the bag containing the purported currency notes.

“It was found that some of the notes were coloured printouts and the remaining were dummy notes. We are trying to find out from where the coloured printouts were taken and from where the remaining fake notes were purchased,” said the officer.

Arun was arrested and has been charged under sections of alleged possession and use of fake Indian currency notes and criminal conspiracy.

The accused was remanded in police custody.

Raids were being conducted to seize the printing machine, the police said.